The Department of Homeland Security has begun a partial shutdown, after funding for the much-criticized agency expired, with a range of services, including domestic flights and the US Coastguard, now vulnerable to disruption.
The shutdown was all but confirmed on Thursday, after the Senate failed to clear the 60-vote threshold needed to pass the DHS appropriations bill and lawmakers left Washington for a long weekend without resolving the impasse.
Democrats say they won’t help approve more funding until new restrictions are placed on federal immigration operations after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis last month.
Democrats demanded radical reforms of how agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) – which both fall under DHS’s remit – operate.
It is, however, unlikely the shutdown will affect ICE and CBP operations, which are deemed vital and already have extensive funding thanks to Donald Trump’s “big beautiful bill”, passed last summer.
Instead, disruption is likely to fall on services such as the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Secret Service and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema).
TSA workers, who include airport security staff and baggage handlers, are expected to continue working over the weekend without pay, to minimize the travel disruption that marked last year’s 43-day government shutdown, the longest in US history. Many Fema workers are expected to be furloughed without pay, limiting its ability to work with local and state partners. Officials have warned that the funding lapse could impede the agency’s ability to respond to natural disasters.
Thursday’s Senate vote fell almost entirely along party lines in a 52-47 vote on the legislation, with John Fetterman of Pennsylvania being the sole Democratic exception in backing the bill. Democrats also blocked an attempt to temporarily extend funding for two weeks at current levels.
While agreeing to agents wearing body cameras, Republicans have resisted other proposals, including demands that agents obtain judicial warrants, signed by a judge, before entering private property.
Chuck Schumer, the Democrats’ leader in the Senate, accused the Republicans of choosing “chaos”.
“They need to negotiate in good faith, produce legislation that actually reins in ICE and stops the violence,” he said on Thursday.
Before Thursday’s vote, Tom Homan, the US border czar, announced that the administration was winding down “Operation Metro Surge” and that the number of ICE agents in Minnesota would return to normal levels. Homan recently took over leadership of the operation from Greg Bovino, a senior border patrol official who was in charge when federal agents killed Good and Pretti.